[ubuntu-users] Networking and USB

[Ted Hilts]

Can a usb connected external (1) IDE drive, (2) SATA drive, or (3) FLASH 
memory card be set up to be a share (let's say on machine A) on the 
local LAN network and therefore accessible to read, write, and 
executeable operations by other machines on that network (let's say on 
machines B, C, and D) also providing their shares? I am trying to make 
some buying decisions. Several years ago I connected via USB an external 
IDE hard drive to one of my LAN machines. I could move data between this 
external drive and the other drives in the local machine but I could not 
access the USB connected external IDE drive by any of the other LAN 
machines. In addition, the external drive required that I conform to 
some kind of management software -- in other words I could not use the 
command line in order to use the disk. So I returned it to the store.

Since that time I have noticed on the lists that many people are using 
SATA drives as part of (I think) LVM where that LVM acts as a virtual 
drive made up of one or many physical drives some on other machines. I 
realize that a virtual drive is not the same as shares (which is what I 
am currently questioning). The local gurus in my part of the pasture 
don't have answers to any of these questions.

Hope someone on the list has some experience and time to address my 
questions. You may encounter delays in my response because my usual mail 
server crashed and is in the hospital so I quickly put together a 
substitute but missing all the filers so for the time being I have to 
look through about 15 large email categories just to find your reply.

Thanks -- Ted